by Guy Antibes
The man walked around the cart and waved them through.
“He only said one word!” Sam said, smiling.
“I’m only concerned that he didn’t stop us. If I had given him my name, we might not have been allowed in.”
“But you’ve paid for your crime, whatever it was.”
“Sometimes you are always unwelcome. Some people never forget. Let’s get settled in for the night.”
“Is there an inn for healers?”
Harrison looked at Sam like he was enjoying hiding something from him. “No. We are staying with an old friend.”
They wound their way through Mountain View. Harrison was right about it being different from Cherryton. Some places smelled when they rode past. Sam’s nose twitched at the odor from all the pollen fires.
“Pollen burning wasn’t so bad on the other side where there were poorer people,” Sam said. “Why is that?”
Harrison shook his head. “They aren’t as poor over there as certain parts of Mountain View. People on the other side of the river also have access to the forest to the southeast. I choose not to pass through the worst parts of the city. They can be dangerous, and quite a few of the people never get out into the countryside, so they burn pollen to keep warm and to cook.”
“I always thought that food cooked over a pollen fire would taste awful,” Sam said.
Sam felt uncomfortable with the healer using so much caution. They drove past a few inns but stopped at a gate to a keep in the center of the town.
“We are spending the night here?”
Harrison pursed his lips. “The answer is yes if Lennard Lager is still the lord of the town.”
“You know the lord?”
“I do,” the healer said. “We served in the army together. I saved his life, and he saved mine more times than I can remember. He is probably the only person in this town who will let me into his home.”
The guard wasn’t as taciturn as the one at the bridge.
“Name?”
“Harrison Dimple and friend.” The healer pointed at Sam. “I am an old acquaintance of the town’s lord.”
“We will see about that. Wait here.”
Harrison climbed down from the wagon and grabbed a bucket from the back. The keep fronted a square with a tiny fountain. He filled the bucket and watered the horse that pulled the wagon.
“You can go in,” the man said after returning minutes later. He called the other guard, and they drew back squeaking gates.
The wagon clattered onto a drawbridge and into the keep’s courtyard. Harrison seemed to know where to go as he drove past the steps leading to the main doors, but stopped at a ground-level entrance. A man of Harrison’s approximate age, dressed well with hair starting to go gray, and smoking a pipe, greeted him.
“Harry, it’s been a year,” he said.
“Indeed it has, Lenny. How are you, and how fares Mountain View?”
“I have never been better. As for the town?” The man moved his head from side to side indicating it was better and worse, at least that was how Sam interpreted it. “You have a helper this year? An apprentice?”
“Sam has an interesting story that you might want to hear. Can we spend the night?”
Lenny shrugged. “Why else are you here?” He walked back into the castle.
“Grab your stuff,” Harrison said to Sam. “Someone will feed the horses.”
Sam followed the healer into the castle. They passed a room with a few guards passing the time playing dice, but they had stood for Lenny, and when they saw the two of them, they nodded and sat back down.
Harrison grunted as he looked at the lazy men. Lenny took him up a narrow flight of stone steps into a more formal part of the keep and then moved to an open door.
“I’ve ordered some food. Come in.”
Sam walked into the fanciest dining room he had ever seen. Wood aged black and carved with fruit and flowers acted as a three-foot tall wainscot surrounding the room. There had to be pollen decorations above on the plain walls, but Sam couldn’t see them. Pollen never lasted very long, so he didn’t know what would prompt someone as rich as a lord to use such things.
“Have something to eat. I will return with my Emmy.” Lord Lenny left the room.
Harrison pursed his lips. “I’ve never met Emmy before,” he said. “Be prepared for some kind of shock or trick. Lenny isn’t a particularly straightforward person.”
“What is on the walls?”
“The armor?”
“Whatever is on the walls is made from pollen. I can’t see what it is, other than there are shadows.”
“You can’t see the draperies?”
Sam shook his head. “Oh, that is why it is dim outside. I thought the glass was tinted.”
Harrison smiled. “We might have a trick of our own. The armor looks just like steel, but old, dented, and showing a rusty spot here and there. The decorations are new from when I was here last and expertly made.” Harrison ran his fingers along the wainscot carvings as thousands or tens of thousands might have done during the time they decorated the dining room. He squinted at the armor. “I’ve never seen such well-reproduced armor. A pollen-artist of the highest level created these.”
Lenny returned, holding onto the leash attached to a huge dog. “Emmy is from Sanchia. She is a hunting dog, but don’t tell me what kind of animal she would hunt. It would have to be big.”
The dog was short-haired, dark grey with ice-blue eyes and a square jaw. She stood higher than Sam’s waist, and her head was as high as his chest. The beast looked like she had been mistreated, with whip marks across her back. Whoever tried to train her had resorted to beating the poor thing. Her ears followed the conversation between Harrison and Lenny. But something was wrong with the dog.
“Is she blind?” Sam said. “She looks like she can’t see.”
Lenny looked at Sam as if he were crazy. “Of course she can’t see. Emmy is wearing a hood.”
A pollen-hood, of course, Sam thought. He walked up to the dog and put his hand out, letting her smell. He had always been able to make friends with animals in Cherryton. Emmy sniffed and nuzzled her nose in his palm. Sam didn’t feel her moist snout because she was covered with a hood.
Lenny’s eyebrows went up. “That dog doesn’t take to strangers, and we are all strangers here.”
Harrison tried to do the same thing, and Emmy growled, too deeply for a sign of friendship.
“How long have you had her?” Harrison said.
“A few months. She ended up as payment for an associate’s gambling debts. I wasn’t going to take her, but Emmy is quite stunning.” Lenny said.
“She is that,” Sam said. “Is she for sale?”
“A gold lion. I wouldn’t part with her for less, but who has such money these days for a dog that will eat and eat and eat and then bark and bark and bark?” The man laughed, making Sam uneasy.
“I will buy her,” Sam said. He didn’t know why he made the offer, but Emmy was obviously being mistreated, and the dog did seem to like him.
“You have a gold lion to spend on a mere dog?”
“Emmy isn’t a mere dog, is she?” Sam said. He pulled out his bag and handed Lenny one of his gold tips. “This should do.”
“Is this real?” Lenny said to Harrison.
The healer nodded. “I don’t know what prompted Sam to buy Emmy, but I’ll gladly take the beast with me on my tour. The dog might come in handy.”
“I accept, young man.” Lenny bowed as servants entered the room and set up three plates at one end of the table. He turned to a guard. “Summon Apple.”
Sam looked at the plates for a moment, but a man dressed as a stable master entered the room. “Take Emmy. This boy has bought the dog. They will be taking her away tomorrow. Uh, clean her up a bit.”
Emmy growled as the man took the leash. Sam walked over and patted Emmy on the neck. “You’ll be coming with us, Emmy.”
The dog seemed to settle down and left.
“Truth be told, I thought I’d have to put her down,” Lenny said, eyeing Sam with a cruel grin on his face. “You have done me a favor, but it’s too late to renegotiate the price.” The town lord began to eat. “So, what is your story?” Lenny said once they started eating.
“I have no magic. I can’t manipulate pollen, nor can I see it, but I can feel it. Lightning struck me when I was five years old and stripped the magic out of my system.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“You should,” Harrison said. “He told me that all the armor on the walls is fake, pollen-made because he can’t see it.”
“What?” Lenny feigned a look of surprise and then laughed. “Caught me out. I had to twist a friend’s arm to get all these pieces made.” He leaned over to Harrison. “How many people can’t see pollen? I haven’t heard of such a thing before.”
“As far as I know, only Sam.”
Sam caught a movement on the other side of the windows. A man and a woman peered in and then began to kiss. “Two people, a couple, are standing at that window kissing.”
“What?” Lenny laughed again. “Too many whats tonight.” He jumped up and fiddled in front of the window, evidently pulling back the drapes. The pair looked shocked as they realized people looked on and ran out of sight. “That is my daughter and the son of one of my aides.” He stared at Sam. “You speak the truth!”
“I do,” Sam said.
“Eat up! I have been entertained. Is there more to your story? Why are you traveling with my old friend, Harry?”
“I’ll tell the tale,” the healer said. He gave a condensed version of Sam’s plight in Cherryton, including the beating by Wally, Gob, and Mark.
“So the gold piece is part of your inheritance?”
“Was. I still want Emmy,” Sam said.
Lenny waved his comment away. “Yes, yes, yes. I am intrigued to meet a magic-less man. Other than your not being able to see pollen, you just might be utterly useless in our world.”
“To some people, yes, I am. Healer Dimple is helping me find my place.”
Lenny looked at Harrison. “I’m sure Harry can do that if anyone can. I wouldn’t have thought that he’d be interested in helping someone find their place.”
The healer colored. Sam wondered if it wouldn’t be wiser to have stayed at an inn or to have bypassed Mountain View altogether.
“I’ve done similar things in various places and in various ways,” Harrison said, visibly unaffected by Lenny’s taunt.
“Very well,” Lenny said.
The taunt seemed to be the last uncomfortable part of dinner. Lenny and Harrison’s friendship finally shone through as they began to reminisce. The healer had spent more time as a soldier fighting with a sword than curing injuries Sam realized.
The pair began to drink, and Lenny called a servant.
“Take this boy to Harrison’s chambers. It is time for him to go to bed.” Lenny looked at Harrison. “It is time to talk of things the boy doesn’t need to hear.”
Harrison made a face but smoothed it. “Of course,” he said.
Sam took his things with him and was shown to a small suite with two bedrooms and a small sitting room. The mental sparring had worn him out. He definitely didn’t like Lord Lenny or whatever his formal name was. He chose the smallest room and didn’t take long to drift off.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
“U P. WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW,” HARRISON SAID, shaking Sam’s shoulder.
Sam looked at the dark window. “It is still night.”
“And not yet two in the morning. We must depart. Lenny had more than enough to drink. He let slip that he has a big surprise for me, and then he said he finally caved-in to some new people in town who, he claims, have become my enemies. Hurry.”
When they walked through the empty corridors, they passed wall sconces illuminating Harrison’s eyes that looked awful. He wondered how much the Healer had had to drink, but the man didn’t waver as they made it out a side door toward the stables.
Harrison kicked a stableboy awake. “I need my wagon hitched to my horse. The boy has bought Emmy, Lord Lennard’s dog. Get her here while we prepare to leave.”
The healer went to a water pump and put his head into a bucket that he filled. “That will keep me awake long enough to get out of this place,” he said.
Emmy came and ran to Sam. The dog licked his hand and knocked Sam over, licking his face.
“You’ve got a girlfriend,” the healer said. “That was quick. Get her into the wagon.”
They trundled out of the keep’s gate onto the drawbridge and out into the town.
“We have to move quickly. If Lenny wakes, he will send the guards after us. I don’t know what got into him, but my friend can no longer be trusted.” Harrison urged the horses on, while Emmy stood up behind them and nuzzled Sam, looking in the direction they were going.
The streets were mostly empty, except for an odd person scurrying around in the dark. They passed a few taverns, still open. They had just about reached the gates when a rider came from behind and drove onward.
“A guard or a messenger to have the guard stop us at the gate, I’m afraid,” Harrison said. He looked agitated, and that made Sam anxious.
Four guards lined up in front of an archway that must have been the exit from Mountain View from this side of the river, and that meant the town had a wall that Sam hadn’t noticed. Cherryton didn’t a wall of protection.
“You are under arrest, Harrison Dimple, for crimes committed in the city of Mountain View.”
“Crimes twenty years ago,” Harrison said. “I was bound and sent to serve in the Toraltian army, which I did honorably. Lord Lennard knows this.”
“Then why did he sign this warrant of arrest?” the man who had ridden past them in the streets said.
“Step aside. I am leaving Mountain View right now.”
Harrison pulled a sword from underneath the seat and jumped down. Sam didn’t know how to fight, but he couldn’t let his companion die alone, so he unsheathed the wand and stood next to Harrison.
“A man and a boy?”
Emmy barked and jumped down, growling at the guards.
“And it appears, a very large dog,” Harrison said dryly.
The messenger attacked Harrison first. The others stood to watch, but Sam couldn’t stand still and so engaged one of the guards, striking with the wand, using it like a teacher would use their cane. He turned and struck the sword of one of the guards. There was no ring of steel, but more of a clunk as if he had clashed with a wooden sword.
“Pollen-blades!” Sam said, swinging at the men.
The wand began to gouge the swords. It didn’t matter at this point. Only the messenger’s sword clanged like steel on steel.
One of the guards pushed Sam to the ground. He was about to strike a blow when Emmy rushed past and grabbed the guard by the arm, pulling the man away from the fight. Emmy returned. Harrison had downed the messenger. Another guard lay in the dirt, and one ran away while the last one that Emmy had tossed away whimpered in the shadows.
“Time to go,” Harrison said.
Sam jumped onto the wagon. Harrison did the same. He urged the horses on. They felt something hit the wagon. Sam looked back to see Emmy with her tongue hanging out with a dog’s grin in the moonlight. They rolled on cobblestones and ran over a bump as the road turned to dirt. Soon the buildings outside the wall thinned, and they were back in the countryside.
Harrison slowed the wagon down as they followed the road in the dim light.
“Are you all right?” Sam asked.
“Barely,” Harrison said. “The messenger was a better swordsman than I. Lenny expected us to escape. He had to make it look convincing for his patrons, whoever they are.”
“Patrons?”
Harrison nodded in the dark, still breathing heavily. “He is Lord of the town by appointment of the king, but he has to live with Mountain View’s citizens. In the past, no on
e had pressed their case, but perhaps a few new connections remembered me and what I did in the city. Whoever they are wanted me killed. Lenny’s slip tonight was likely intentional. It was his way of giving me a chance to escape. I’ve stayed overnight at the castle at the beginning of my last four summer tours without a problem. No more, obviously.”
“We could have been killed?”
Harrison nodded. “We did rather well, I thought, including our new member, Emmy. She protected you. I’d say you bonded with her quickly. Maybe it is your lack of magic.” Harrison seemed to shrug in the darkness. “It doesn’t matter, she earned her right to come with us, and I daresay the gold lion that you spent has already given you a return. I hope she will accept me as your friend tomorrow. For now, we need to get off this road and spend the rest of tonight and a good portion of tomorrow morning resting.”
~
Sam woke as the sun peeked over the trees on the eastern side of the clearing. He rolled over and found himself against Emmy, who had decided to sleep next to him sometime in the night. Harrison snored underneath the wagon.
He let both of them sleep while he searched for wood and started a little fire. He didn’t know what they had to eat, but he could keep water hot until Harrison woke. By the time he found a lump of hard bread to gnaw on, Emmy had trotted to his side and nuzzled. Her affectionate actions nearly knocked him over, but Sam couldn’t help but pet the dog and scratch behind her ears.
Emmy still had whip marks on her back. They didn’t look like they were healing very well. Sleeping in the dirt next to him couldn’t have helped. Harrison sat up.
“We are still alive, are we?” he said, smiling. “Emmy didn’t trot off during the night, eh?”
Sam shook his head. “No. If anything, she is clinging to me like a baby sister.”
“And you’ve had a baby sister?”
Sam grinned. “No, but I’ve seen them before.”
“I imagine you have,” Harrison said, getting up and stretching. “I am sore from the effort last night. I’ll need to do more exercise. How would you like to learn to defend yourself? It looked like you were beating a rug or something with that poker of yours.” He walked over and pursed his lips. “You were right about Emmy. She has been mistreated, and these wounds are starting to fester. I don’t know if she will let me treat her.”
